/m/seattle_mariners

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

Is it fair to ask what Eric Wedge brings to the table? I see one first place finish in ten years (to be fair, two really good seasons with 96 and 93 wins), and just two winning seasons. Granted he was around .500 in three other years at 78, 80, and 81 wins. Made the playoffs just once in ten years by my count, which in the wildcard era is not good.

I will grant that I'm forgetting how good his Indians teams were supposed to be from a talent perspective. Certainly the Mariners have had very little.

I'm just asking whether it can be said that he's a good manager, or at least what his strengths are. Because it's been a decade so we should have a handle on him by now. And he doesn't come off smelling like roses above.

Who are the managers who have been resurrected after quitting on their teams? I can think of Leyland.

Weird, I just assumed him not staying on had something to do with his stroke earlier this year (that was him right? There is one manager I always seem to confuse with Hurdle, but I forget who that is right now).

This certainly seems rare to have such an open discussion about management like this.

Yeah, surely there's a bench coach or something who can manage the team for the last game. Heck, letting the players do it themselves is probably better than having Wedge in the dugout at this point.

I'm sure the Mariner execs in hindsight are wishing they had excused him early, but at this point it might seem petty and vindictive to do so.

Wedge is a little young to be burning his bridges with these kinds of statements. And as Ray alluded to, he also doesn't exactly have a stellar record to fall back on. I think he'll be coaching and not managing for quite a while after this.

If I were the Mariners, I would just choose the least flammable option here. Firing him hours before the final day is a national story. Also, some of the fellows that Wedge named as his enemies are also worried about their own jobs, which is certainly a factor. They probably feel less confident about firing the guy and making a statement about the importance of buying into the team vision.

If I were the Mariners, I would just choose the least flammable option here.

Yeah, I'd simply let him ride it out. If it looks like he's going to do something stupid or damaging, then step in. Otherwise, since it's just one game, I don't see the point in making this into an issue.

Wedge is basically a replacement level manager, as most managers are. The players seemed to like him ok, but he was pretty lousy in-game, and obviously his teams sucked.

The next few years should be interesting for the M's. They should be breaking in some decent pitching talent from the minors, and Franklin/Zunino could be real contributors. They've got a long way to go, though. The pitching staff is godawful after Felix and Iwakuma - there's no excuse for having a pitching staff as bad as they had this year. That's all on Zduriencik. He needs to go.

I lack the professional diplomacy gene, which has stymied my own career, but I pretty much look at it this way: If you have a history of producing at an exceptional level, and so long as the public comments aren't the FIRST time they've been made -- ##### away... sometimes, it takes a good public airing for the message to get through and the brass would do well to tell the ego to take a back seat and consider the comments.

However, nothing about Wedge has been impressive -- no one regards him as a genius tactician, he doesn't have a brilliant eye for talent, his record is pedestrian - at best, and looking over his history, I'm not seeing a trove of guys who seem to have developed exceptionally well under him. In such cases, recognize you're a replacement level cog and STFU.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I always liked Wedge as a manager (notwithstanding his ant-sabermetrick remarks on Ackley) and I think he'll be hired as a manager again pretty quickly.

If you're the Mariners, what is the rationale for keeping Jack Z around? His team's have been an abject disaster and his leadership style have now forced Tony Blengino and Eric Wedge out. Is it because of the giant death ray he keeps on his evil island?

Seven or eight years ago, I asked in partially non-feigned innocence if Primates thought that any manager in baseball had an IQ above room temperature. The only response I got, grudgingly, from one person, was that Eric Wedge might be the guy. Oh, how the smart have fallen :(

If you're the Mariners, what is the rationale for keeping Jack Z around? His team's have been an abject disaster and his leadership style have now forced Tony Blengino and Eric Wedge out. Is it because of the giant death ray he keeps on his evil island?

I lack the professional diplomacy gene, which has stymied my own career, but I pretty much look at it this way: If you have a history of producing at an exceptional level, and so long as the public comments aren't the FIRST time they've been made -- ##### away... sometimes, it takes a good public airing for the message to get through and the brass would do well to tell the ego to take a back seat and consider the comments.

However, nothing about Wedge has been impressive -- no one regards him as a genius tactician, he doesn't have a brilliant eye for talent, his record is pedestrian - at best, and looking over his history, I'm not seeing a trove of guys who seem to have developed exceptionally well under him. In such cases, recognize you're a replacement level cog and STFU.

A former co-worker summed this up perfectly for me many years ago;

You can be an ####### and a genius and I can work with you.
You can be a great guy and an idiot and I can work with you.
Just don't be an ####### and an idiot.